What Does God Require?

Jeremiah 24:7

And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.

 

We have studied many scriptures in which God asks for our total commitment and devotion to Him. He asks us to love Him with all of us, not just a part of us. Yet, there will still be some people who will say, “I just don't believe God asks for that kind of commitment.” We have studied several scriptures and stories of people in the Bible in which total commitment was the requirement. Try to find one scripture in the Bible that says you do not have to give God total commitment. There are no scriptures in the Bible that say we do not have to be totally committed, so what are you going to believe?

 

Psalms 119:2

Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart.

 

How could someone say with absolute certainty that anything less than total commitment of our lives is acceptable to God? To say that we could make a halfway commitment would contradict the Bible.

 

Deuteronomy 11:13-15

So, if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul—then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

 

Why would we only want to make a halfway commitment to God anyway? Why not make a full commitment? King Saul was the first King of Israel. He did make a commitment to God, but it was not a full commitment. He tried to do many things for God, but often he did things his way instead of God's way because his heart was divided. Sometimes our hearts are divided between doing things our own way, and doing things God's way. When Saul held a halfway commitment to God, he was rejected by God.

 

1 Samuel 15:22-23

And Samuel said, has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.